My Palestine: An Impossible Exile

A memoir that combines political and economic commentary with personal and national history.

Mohammad Tarbush was born in British Mandate Palestine. As an infant, he and his family were forced to evacuate their village together with its entire population, after the Zionist victory that led to the establishment of the State of Israel. Then as landless refugees in the West Bank, the family sank into poverty. When, as a teenager, Tarbush left home one day under the pretext of visiting relatives in Jordan, he in fact set off on a year-long hitchhiking journey to Europe, where he would eventually become a highly successful international banker and a key behind-the-scenes promoter of the Palestinian cause. In My Palestine, Mohammad Tarbush combines poignant personal memoir with incisive political and economic commentary on the tumultuous events that shaped the history of Israel, Palestine, and the modern Middle East.

Mohammad Tarbush (1948-2022) was born Beit Nattif, near Jerusalem. In 1988, he became managing director at Deutsche Bank and then at UBS. He is the author of several books including Reflections of a Palestinian. His writings on Palestine have appeared in the Guardian and Financial Times, among others.